Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I haven't paid tax in a while, it feels. Here's some cull males I didn't get around to this fall (so they're likely to live until next spring at this point)
They're half spitzhauben, quarter Ameraucana and quarter Batman Cochin.
View attachment 2941604

Are they for eating?

 

[Shadrach]

From Tribe 1 in Catalonia, Treacle.

 

[RoyalChick]

Back and forth this afternoon due to the rain. They only got half an hour out in the allotment run despite me being there standing in the rain for two hours.
I'm going to have to sort out some easy put up and take down person shelter because I'm running out of dry clothes!
View attachment 2941545View attachment 2941546

Big umbrella?

 

[NatJ]

is C keeps putting bird seed in the feeder and they prefer this to the pellets. There is nothing like enough protein in the bird seed and despite emptying it when I get to the allotments the chickens will have eaten quite a lot by the afternoon.

Maybe you can get something high protein, like gamebird starter or turkey starter, and give them a dish of that as wet mash when you arrive. Most chickens will gobble that up quite happily, and it can help balance the lower-protein birdseed.

(I don't know what you have access to there. In the US, I can often find chick starter at 18% to 20% protein, layer feed at 15% to 16% protein, and the turkey/gamebird starter ranges from 24% protein up to 30% protein. That makes it really handy as a protein supplement, and when I figure the cost per pound of actual protein, it's a much better deal than buying mealworms or cat food or any of the other commonly-suggested protein sources.)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Are they for eating?

Well, they were for laying. Then they turned into males

So yeah, they were for eating since I can't really justify a 4th male with currently only 10 females for the mixed flock (there's an Orpington and mosaic in the cull pen with them not pictured). But then it went down to -8F today and the snow has just been piling up, so we can't set up a butcher base

 

[JacinLarkwell]

From Tribe 1 in Catalonia, Treacle.
View attachment 2941625

Oh his comb is so handsome

 

[BigBlueHen53]

There shouldnt be a problem with supplies @Shadrach

Erm ...there is a problem for those of us who are overseas from you ...

 

[Solanacae]

You are quite lucky to have found a solid breeder.

I really am! She’s a great resource for me. I’m on a local chicken FB group and have seen the sorts of birds some people are breeding - I think the worst was a person so who had listed Barnevelders for sale and showed pictures of poorly patterned chickens that could only be called double-laced in the loosest terms of the word and eggs that were no darker than a light brown. I was appalled.

 

[Solanacae]

Not sure if I should pay tax on that last comment, since it was sort of chicken related, but here’s either a tax payment or prepayment. I try to stay on the good side of the law.

Chicks doing yoga on the roosting bars while mama Caramel and Cordelia hunt for the scratch grains I threw into the bedding. They haven’t been excited to go outside much because of the snowstorms we’ve been getting in rapid succession, so the deep bedding on the coop floor works as a substitute and is a whole lot warmer than the muddy/snowy ground outside.

 

[Perris]

I'm going to have to sort out some easy put up and take down person shelter

An angler's umbrella?